Northampton Saints’ struggles to convert opportunities into points was highlighted by Phil Dowson as the difference that cost his side victory over Harlequins at Twickenham Stadium.
While the men in Black, Green and Gold secured an 11th bonus point of the season – with tries from Ollie Sleightholme, James Ramm, Tom Litchfield and Courtney Lawes – it was the hosts who prevailed with three tries in each half to win 41-32.
Saints trailed by six points at the break as the Gallagher Premiership league leaders were punished for their profligacy in the attacking 22 – an area where the hosts showed a clinical cutting edge.
“From a coaching point of view we have to focus on what we can control and what we can do better at,” said Dowson. “In the first half we left a lot of points out there. Our set-piece didn’t function, defensively, they opened us up a few times and we didn’t have enough in the second half to turn it around.”
He added: “The underlying feeling is of frustration. We didn’t quite get it right.”
Harlequins’ victory came despite losing three players to the sin bin across an entertaining encounter played out before more than 60,000 people at Twickenham.
“I thought they [Quins] defended particularly well,” added Dowson. “They took some time out of the game when they were down to 14, which they were for half an hour. We didn’t convert any of that pressure.
“Conversely, when we gave penalties away, one for not rolling, one scrum penalty, they stuck it in the corner and they converted their opportunities. That fundamentally made the difference.”
Phil Dowson, director of rugby
Just as they did in victories over the Vodacom Bulls and Leicester Tigers, Saints made multiple changes to their starting line-up as the likes of Curtis Langdon, Alex Coles, Alex Moon and Alex Waller were left out while Fraser Dingwall and Juarno Augustus were among the replacements.
Next up for Saints is a trip to Dublin on Saturday for their Investec Champions Cup semi-final with Leinster at Croke Park, and Dowson gave some insight as to how he is managing his squad to compete on two fronts.
“It is a relentless season, particularly for those who have been away in the Six Nations,” he said. “We’ve got two sides of the squad; the guys who played throughout that Six Nations break and the guys that didn’t, who had a period of time away from the Club, time away from rugby, an opportunity to be built back into it as a mini pre-season.
“We’ve tried to manage that in terms of playing time, rightly or wrongly. Therefore, hoping that we can keep energy levels high and giving us the best opportunity for performance moving forward.”
